On Christmas Eve 2001, attorney Robert Powell drove Michael Conahan, a state trial court judge in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, out to the site where Powell planned to build a new juvenile detention center for the county. Conahan had a personal interest in the project: He and his good friend, fellow judge Mark Ciavarella, had helped get it launched the year before by putting Powell together with builder Robert Mericle.
The land was still undeveloped on that Christmas Eve visit, Powell would later testify during Ciavarella’s corruption trial. So Powell described, generally, what the facility would look like and how it would operate. Conahan was impressed.
